Hollow fiber membrane modules where the hollow fibers membranes are substantially perpendicular to the major axis of the module are known. Hollow fiber membrane modules of this type are illustrated in French Patent 2,222,134; European Patent Application Publications 350,853 and 521,495; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,081, each is incorporated herein by reference. In each of these, hollow fiber mats are embedded in an annular ring of potting material. These embedded mats are then inserted into a housing to form the module. The difficulty with these prior art modules is that they are costly to make because they require the use of a casting mold that must be broken-away from the formed embedded mats. The mold breakaway step is labor intensive and time consuming.
Accordingly, there is a need for a more cost-effective module and a method of making same.